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Coffee is more than just an energizing drink — it’s also an icebreaker and a social connector. Coffee shops are popular places to grab a latte with friends, plan an outing while sipping espresso, or host a discussion over steaming hot Americanos.
Now, content creators are bringing the appeal of the cafe to the home, creating neat, cozy coffee shops from inside their apartments, according to House Beautiful. Complete with stamped napkins, menus, and an array of drinks and pastries, these cafes provide an opportunity to role play and connect over coffee sans the crowds and the cost of a traditional coffee shop.
A Growing Trend
Turning an apartment into a coffee house, with pastries, drinks, a menu, and friends, is a popular social media trend. Videos on TikTok showcasing these cozy, at-home shops have gone viral, racking up several million views.
One creator, Victoria Lauren Da Silva, who goes by the handle @urgirlvic, regularly features her home cafe in TikTok videos, which she calls the “Saturday Cafe,” filled with menus, pastries, and even a logo stamped onto napkins. Her videos have hundreds of thousands of views and followers have commented things like, “This is my dream,” and, “Where do I apply to be your friend?”
Da Silva tells Eater that her friends enjoy the coffee shop experience and some of them even remain there after “closing time.” “I like that there’s no pressure to show up at a certain time and leave at a certain time,” Da Silva explains.
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Opening Hours
One of the appeals of an at-home coffee shop is that it takes the pressure off of hosting. Instead of harder-to-prep dinner get-togethers, friends can relax over lattes and cake. And, home cafes can be open as often or as seldom as the host wants. London-based TikToker @zoehudsonx opened the doors of her cafe on a special occasion, recreating the trend as a theme for her housewarming party after moving to a new apartment, House Beautiful shares.
In a TikTok video you can see @calvintanny fully immersed in creating his own cafe experience. The content creator is a resident advisor and a nursing student at an NYC college, and holds in-dorm, pop-up coffee shop events, Eater shares.
Tan explains that opening a coffee shop has been a dream for him. “We’re asked to host events that we’re passionate about, so I might as well do something I enjoy,” he tells Eater.
Saving Money
Another benefit of hosting coffee parties at home is that it cuts down on the cost of eating out, the New York Post reports. On TikTok, one content creator, @abigailorfino, captioned a video showing her ‘cafe night in’ with her friend, with the text “In 2025 we WILL be saving money.”
Brandon Chou, an LA-based content creator who regularly hosts apartment cafes, breaks down the cost of setting up shop. He tells Eater that the initial “start-up expenses” — for example, investing in an espresso machine, can be costly. However, the ongoing experience can be as expensive or cheap as you want.
Chou adds that he used to spend around $100 on his earlier at-home cafe experiences, but he’s since cut costs by investing in reusable cups and simplifying the menu.
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Da Silva points out that even though setting up the apartment coffeehouse isn’t free, it may even be saving her more money overall because these cafes are in place of hosting more expensive dinners or getting expensive drinks at a brick and mortar coffee shop.
How to Open Your Own At-Home Cafe
When you open up your own cafe, you are the boss, the barista, and there are no rules for how to “set up shop.” House Beautiful shares that you can personalize the cafe experience as much or as little as you want. You can bake your own cakes and pastries, or pick confections from a local store to re-serve.
Home cafe “owners” may choose to print their own menus or to write them by hand on a board. The menu and the items on it are completely up to your own discretion.
When Da Silva opens her cafe doors, Eater shares, she has her own brand logo. When you open your own shop, you can design your own logo which can appear on as many or as few items as you need. You can also use stamps or stickers to personalize your cafe.
Most importantly, unlike a traditional cafe, there’s no need for prices on the menu, according to Eater. Friends eat and drink for free. However you set up your home, make sure that it is cozy and inviting. And don’t forget to invite your friends to share with you.
“The appeal is just that it’s for friends,” Chou explains. “When I’m making coffee, it’s nice to look up and see that everyone’s just really happy.” So skip the coffee shop line this weekend and treat yourself and your friends to this special DIY experience right in your very own home.
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